


Caught Scarlet-handed

by daydreamingstoryteller



Series: ColdFlash Events [2]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Barry Allen Needs a Hug, Barry Allen is so Done, Barry's Friends Are Amazing, Bisexual Barry Allen, Dialogue Heavy, Eddie Thawne Lives, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Hurt/Comfort, Len is only in it a bit, M/M, Mentions of Character Death, Pre-Relationship, post singularity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-17 03:49:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15452712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daydreamingstoryteller/pseuds/daydreamingstoryteller
Summary: Nothing was going right for Barry. He was getting swarmed by reporters, Thawne died and took away the last chance of freeing his father, there were wedding preparations to be made and rebuilding needed to get done for the city. Finally, now to top it off, Barry screwed up at work and mishandled evidence.Or did he? How else did his fingerprints end up in the evidence?Written for ColdFlash Exchange Prompt: Soulmate AU where your soulmate shares the same fingerprints as you.





	Caught Scarlet-handed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wyvernsongs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wyvernsongs/gifts).



> Everything is mostly the same as canon up until after Family of Rogues. Eddie is still alive, and Thawne was only declared dead a couple of months after the singularity. Len is not in prison for killing Lewis because The Flash testified for him. 
> 
> To voiceofdragons: I don't think that this is what you had in mind but I tried my best. ^^ I hope you like it :)

“Allen!” Captain Singh yelled the minute Barry steeped foot into his office. Barry winced at that loud tone as he shrunk into himself and stood in front of his boss. 

“Captain.” Barry greeted in a voice that did nothing to hide his nervousness. “Eddie said you called for me?”

“This is the second time this month that you have had an incident with mishandled evidence Allen.” Singh replied as he threw down a manila folder onto his desk to show Barry. “Your fingerprints are on the cigarette bud found outside of the 7th street Bank crime scene.” He waited for Barry to take the folder and look through it. “CSI Spivot ran the prints through the database and this came up. You’ve never had this problem before Allen. I know you’ve been having a rough month with your mentor Dr. Wells’ death, but I cannot have one of my specialists screwing up like this. I’d rather you take leave to grieve then to let your work suffer because of your mental state.”

Captain Singh’s voice softened minutely but the tone of it did not change. Barry knew Singh was extremely serious about the issue and he understood his reasoning. This entire case, like the previous robbery, was now pretty much unsolvable due to the evidence contamination. Barry was sure he handled the collection as properly as any other crime scene but maybe he really was out of it from all the sleepless late nights. He closed the folder and held onto it as he dared to look up at his boss.

“I’m really really sorry Captain. I don’t know what happened. I was so sure everything was done properly but I guess I missed something. I promise it won’t happen again.” Subconsciously, he had started to rub the back of his neck. Looking at the obvious signs of distress on his CSI’s face, Singh eased up a little bit.

“Make sure it doesn’t. If evidence is contaminated again, I might have to suspend you or worse.” He dismissed Barry with that but just as Barry was about to leave the office he spoke up again, with a much more softer and understanding voice than before. “I am being serious about the bereavement leave Allen. You should take it if you really need it.”

Barry turned to glace at the Captain for a couple of seconds. “It’s okay Captain. I’ll be alright. Uh… thanks for the concern though. I’ll just go and return this folder to Patty.” The words were barely out of his mouth before he was turning back and leaving.

The door to the office clicked shut and Barry let out a sigh of relief. He was getting tired of all the pitying looks and condolences from his colleagues. It’s been more than two months since Thawne had been sucked into the singularity, but Dr. Harrison Wells was only officially proclaimed dead last week.  Somehow, immediately following that announcement, the news that Dr Wells had left all his possessions to one CSI Barry Allen had flooded the media. Barry was sick and tired of fighting off nosy reporters and fielding questions from everyone about his relationship with the dead man. He felt like he just could not escape from the evil speedster even after he was gone.

A hand on his shoulder brought Barry out of his thoughts, and he turned to find Eddie looking at him in concern. “You okay Bare?”

If it was anyone else, Barry would have already brushed off the concern and walked away. However, this was Eddie. They had become closer over the past few months and with Eddie being Iris’s soulmate and about to marry Iris, they both have become like family to each other.

Because of that, Barry only sighed and lightly shook his head. “If I’m being honest, not really – no. Hey Eddie could you do me a favour? Can you give this folder to Patty?” He asked handing said item over. “I think I’m going to leave early and go to the Labs. I need a break after the string of crimes this week man.”

“Yea sure Barry. You head on out, I’ll let Joe and the rest know. You really deserve a break so go.” Eddie empathized, gently shoving Barry up the stairs to get his stuff. Barry gave Eddie a hug and thanked him before getting his stuff and leaving for the labs. He really needed to talk to his friends.

 

~~~~~

 

“I’m just saying that we could totally turn this place into a fantastic museum girl. I mean…” Cisco got cut off when Barry came bursting through the cortex with his signature gust of wind. All the papers went flying into the air and Caitlin got up to gather them back again.

“We really have to get paperweights. Why are we so dumb to not have bought them yet?” Cisco commented as he immediately went to fix his hair. Barry did not even notice any of his words as he headed straight to the cot in the med bay to lie down. His actions made the other two stop and share a confused and concerned look.

“Barry? What’s going on? You still have work for 2 hours.” Caitlin asked as she stopped picking up papers and went to check up on her friend.

“Nothing.” Barry grunted in reply. “Needed a break.”

Cisco scoffed. “Dude, it’s clearly not nothing. You hate lying on that cot even when you’re injured and sick so the fact that you are laying on it and not wanting to talk clearly means something is up. Come on. Spill it before we start interrogating.”

Barry knew that there was no use in arguing. They just wanted to help him, and he did need to talk to them. That is why he came to the labs in the first place anyway. Barry covered his eyes with his arm and let out another sigh. He seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

“Barry please – “, Caitlin started but she was interrupted by Barry himself.

“Singh yelled at me today cause of contaminated evidence. This is the second time I’ve been super careless this month! We can’t do anything about the crimes now because that was all the evidence we had. Singh was furious, and he warned that I might get suspended if it happens again. Oh and to top it off, he thinks this is all due to my grief over Thawne”, he spit out that name like a curse, “and he suggested I take bereavement leave. Like as if I need time to miss that bastard and be sad about him being gone.”

Caitlin and Cisco shared another sympathetic look before both went to give Barry a hug.

“Come here man, we’re here for you. You have to stop beating yourself up over all of this.” Cisco mumbled into Barry’s shoulder.

“Cisco’s right Barry. I’m sorry that you have to deal with the press, the awkward questions and all the legal processes but you don’t have to do it alone. I wish we could help take that burden off you, but you aren’t letting us.” Caitlin added.

“We know about the late-night reconstruction work you’ve been doing for the city. Let us help you man. Please. That’s what friends are for.”

Barry’s eyes started to water on their own accord as he let their words and all the pent-up emotions of the last few months sink in. He hugged them both a little tighter before letting go. He looked at his hands as he tried to formulate what he wanted to say.

“I really am thankful for everything you guys but I just – I feel like there are some things I need to work out on my own. I know you’re here for me and I love you two for it, but I need time. I hope you can understand that.”

“We do Barry. And even thou I don’t like it, I respect your choice and I’ll let you be. For now.” Caitlin replied.

“Okay I’ll let you slide on the Thawne thing for now but let us help you with the evidence. Maybe we can pick up more clues from the crime scene and get something else to point towards the criminals. Which crime scenes were they?”

Barry perked up a little at that thought of not letting the cases go cold. He looked up to see Cisco making his way to the monitors to do a search. He got up off the cot and followed. “The first was the jewellery shop robbery at 5th and main from around 2 weeks ago and the other was the bank robbery 4 days ago.”

“Pulling up security cameras.” Cisco narrated as he pulled up the feed.

“Cameras only caught a dark clad male breaking in to the jewellery store before the feed was cut. The bank’s cameras were off all the way together with their other security measures.” Barry supplied.

“I’ll hack into CCPD and see what they have of both cases so far.” Caitlin muttered as she went over to another monitor. In minutes, the trio were looking at all the data from both crime scenes. For the first case, the CCPD had narrowed down the suspect to a Caucasian male of roughly 6 feet, with a scar on his left hand based on the CCTV footage before it was cut out. The fingerprint had been taken off the cameras and later contaminated with Barry’s prints. For the second case, there was no evidence left behind, except for the cigarette bud outside the bank and a damaged vault door. After half an hour of trying to find anything else, Barry gave up. It was obvious that there was no evidence and that he’d screwed up the only chance of anyone catching the perp. He slumped into a chair ran his hands through his hair with frustration.

“I cannot believe that I was this careless, guys. I thought I was being as proper and professional as always, but I must have missed something. Oh my god.” He exclaimed disappointedly.

“Barry stop it. Stop beating yourself up over this.”

“I can’t Cait! Both crimes were done by criminals who have the most generic characteristics ever. Except for that guy with a scar on his hand. Other than that, it’s pretty much like looking at a needle in a haystack situation here.”

“Well, it looks like both guys were left handed, so it’s a smaller haystack than it could have been.” Cisco quipped. No body laughed.

“I really can’t remember where I went wrong.” Barry repeated with a groan. A silence fell over the cortex.

“Look at it this way, at least it’s not the same person who’s trying to frame you.” Cisco tried to joke.

Caitlin caught on and added, “Oh! And at least there’s no way that’s your soulmate who’s a criminal!” At that, Cisco chuckled. It took him a couple of seconds to realize that Barry wasn’t smiling or even looking a little bit better. In fact, Barry had stilled, and his face looked paler than before.

“What if it is though?” He whispered into the still air of the lab.

“What if it is…..someone trying to frame you?” Cisco questioned. He was very confused for a moment at Barry’s response.

“No… they… I – I was at the precinct when both crimes were going on. If anyone wanted to frame me, and went to great lengths to get my fingerprints, wouldn’t they have known when I was working? Me being in the precinct gives me at least twelve people who could be my alibis.”

“You’re right Barry.” Cisco said slowly, as if talking to a spooked child. “That’s kinda why I said it’s probably not someone trying to frame you. Why are you so worried?”

“But what if it’s the other thing?” Barry was staring off into the wall as he voiced the question out loud to himself. Caitlin and Cisco shared another look.

 _‘What the hell is up with Barry today?’_ They thought to themselves.

“Barry….” Caitlin started to use her doctor voice. “We are under the assumption that you’re a straight – or using proper terminology, a heterosexual - man. If that is not true, we are very sorry for assuming and please feel free to not tell us anything that you are uncomfortable of saying.”

A beat of silence followed her words before Barry blinked rapidly and looked at his friend incredulously. “Cait- did you just ask me about my sexuality like _that_?”

“Like what?” She squeaked, crossing her arms defensively.

Barry started to chuckle as he replied. “Like you’re asking someone if they have – I don’t know some heart disease or something! It was very … clinical.”

“I did not ask it like that!” She huffed. Even Cisco had started laughing at the blush on her face.

“I agree with Barry, Cait. That was very weirdly and technically phrased., You even used your doctor voice”

“Ugh, I can’t believe you two! I did not use my doctor voice and even if I did, I only did it because I didn’t want to upset Barry.”  Cisco and Barry were outright laughing by now and Caitlin could not help but pout a little at that.

“You really did use your doctor voice though.” Barry uttered, in between his laughs. “But it’s okay Cait, I think I really needed that to cheer me up.” Slowly, the laughter died down and the three friends were looking at each other with small smiles.

“And to answer your question, I’m bisexual and Joe, Iris, Eddie and my dad know. I would have told you two before, but it never came up.”

“Thanks for trusting us man. It’s all good. And in case you didn’t know, I’m pansexual so everything’s actually more than good. Now we can finally talk about hot male actors too and not just about the female ones.” Cisco readily replied as he went in for a hug. As the two best friends were embracing, Caitlin suddenly spoke up, bursting the cheerful bubble of theirs.

“Oh no.” Caitlin gasped. “Barry this means that there is a good possibility that, that really is your soulmate.”

Barry let go of Cisco and looked backed up at Caitlin. He paused for a few milliseconds, before he closed his eyes, and let out his longest sigh yet.

 _‘I really can’t deal with this right now.’_ He thought to himself. So, he stood up and headed back to the cot in the med bay. Ignoring his friends and the rest of the world for the moment, he threw himself head first onto the cot and promptly fell asleep.

 

~~~~~

 

Later that night, Barry found himself knocking at the front of Patty’s door. When he’d awoken from his nap, he’d been surprised to find that Cisco and Caitlin had already done up a plan to figure out his potential soulmate situation. Barry spent a minute wondering how he got so lucky to have amazing friends like this before he listened to their plan. Deciding that this was their best bet, he agreed to follow through with it.

Which led him to Patty’s doorstep. When Patty opened the door, she was quite surprised to find Barry standing there. Getting over her shock quickly, she welcomed him into the apartment.

“Hey Barry, what’s up? It’s like ten thirty on a Friday night. Anything wrong?” She asked, after both of them had settled onto the couch with hot chocolate.

“Sorry Patty, I know that it’s late and I’m sorry for disturbing you right now, but this is kind of important and I need your help.”

“Of course, Barry. I’m always here to help a friend. Is this about the evidence contamination from today?”

“Uhh, yea something related to that actually. I just- I don’t know how to say this and it might be awkward because of what we umm had and I – “, Barry stuttered helplessly.

“Barry, stop.” Patty cut in. She got up and walked over to sit beside Barry. She put her hand on his knee and made sure he was focused before continuing. “Look Barry, we went out for like five dates max. We tried the whole relationship thing, but it didn’t work so we stopped. That’s all. You were my friend first before we started that and you’re still my friend now. You can tell me whatever it is, and I promise it won’t be awkward okay?”

Barry looked at her hand on his knee and then back up at her. “Yeah ok. I mean, I really do need your help and I don’t trust anyone else at the precinct with this. At least no one else who could help me. So here’s what’s up.”

It took around fifteen minutes for Barry to explain everything to Patty. The entire time Patty stayed silent and let Barry talk. When he finished, Barry looked at her expectantly. He was jiggling his legs in anticipation of what Patty would say. He was serious when he meant there was no one else at the precinct who he trusted to help with this.

“Alright,” Patty said calmly after taking a minute to collect her thoughts. “I’ll do it. I’ll take the next big robbery case and handle all the evidence myself, from collection to running the tests. And I promise, I’ll come to you right away if your prints come up again okay? I promise I won’t tell anyone about this either. Thank you for trusting me. I know it must have been hard but I won’t let you down.” She finished off by shooting a small smile at him.

Finally, it felt like a huge burden was off Barry’s shoulders. “God, I can’t thank you enough Patty. You’re the best.” He said as he hugged her.

“You bet I’m the best!” She replied, laughing into his shoulder. She’d known he was feeling off the past couple of months, what with all the Dr. Wells business and something else personal. She hated missing that bright sunshine smile of his. She’d wanted to cheer him up, but she was not doing a great job of it. But, right then in her apartment, as she sat there hugging him, she promised herself that she’d do as much as she could. Barry Allen deserved happiness and if she could help bring that to him, then she would try her best to achieve that.

 

~~~~~

 

It’s been two days since the talk with Patty and there have been no updates on any front. There hadn’t been a major robbery that fit the previous M.O. and the streets have been eerily quiet with meta attacks.  Usually, Barry would be ecstatic that he was getting a break from Flash duties, but more time to himself meant more time to dwell on his own thoughts. He didn’t have Flash activity to take his mind off everything and his CSI work only added to his anxiety. He had started to triple check all the evidence he handled, and it was getting on his nerves. He really wanted to get drunk and forget about his worries for a while but even if he could get drunk, it wasn’t like he could go to any random bar to relax. Everyone was aware of him now.

Just yesterday, he’d gone to a bar to get some space from his family and friends but was ambushed by random strangers wanting to talk to him about Dr. Wells. Even when he’d shut them all down immediately, he could still hear and see the whispers and stares that were directed his way. He stayed for forty minutes before he couldn’t handle it anymore and left.

He’d resigned himself to just staying at his apartment alone and watching reruns of the Office for the foreseeable future. In fact, he was packing up his things and planning on going home to do just that when he heard a knock. It was Iris. “Hey Iris, you here to pick up Eddie for date night?”

“What? I can’t be here to just talk to my best friend and maid of honour?”

“Ha nice try. We all know Linda is your maid of honour and that I’m Eddie’s best man.”

“Damn it Bare, let me have my fun. Anyway, I did come to pick up Eddie but I figured I’d check up on you too. I know it’s been a hell of a week.”

“Argh don’t remind me. Iris, I love you and you’re an amazing reporter but the rest of them are vultures. Ever since the news broke about me getting Star Labs, I haven’t been able step out of my house as just Barry Allen the CSI. The Flash is supposed to be the famous and popular part of me. Not Barry Allen.”

Iris frowned at that. She knew why people were hounding him, it really was part of the job but she wished he got a chance to catch a break. “I’m really sorry Bare. It’s just that Dr. Wells was a famous person and him being missing and declared dead is a huge deal. I wish it wasn’t, but it is and with the funeral coming up and everything, people want answers.”

Barry ran a hand through his hair, trying not to pull it out. “I get that Iris but for once, I’d like to just go out to a bar or something and not have to deal with everyone’s judgements and stares. But all everybody sees when they look at me is, ‘Barry Allen’, the CSI nobody who’s suddenly now filthy rich and the owner of the biggest research Lab in the city.”

“Don’t let Dr. Mcgee hear you say that.” Iris chuckled but then turned serious. “I don’t know what I can do to help, other than maybe writing an article to answer some of the questions and handle the PR side. Wait now that I think about it, that might actually work. I’ll look into that for you okay? But for now, if you really don’t want anybody to bother you, then maybe try going somewhere where nobody cares about anybody else?” She answered uncertainly.

Barry pondered on her words, before a place came to mind. He looked back up at Iris before replying. “Thank Iris. I think I know where I can go now. I’ll catch up with you tomorrow okay? Have fun with Eddie and thanks for the PR stuff.” With that, he kissed her on the cheek before speeding out of the precinct and straight to ‘Saints & Sinners’.

 

~~~~~

 

Leonard Snart was cooling off with a drink in a corner of his bar when the door to the bar opened. For a second everyone in the bar stilled and looked up at the new comer. The bar had only just opened fifteen minutes ago, and no one friendly comes in this early, unless they were regulars, or looking for a fight. The bar only had about five people in it but every one of them were armed and trigger happy. Len really didn’t want a situation occurring. He glanced towards the door, his right-hand inching towards the cold gun that was strapped onto his leg. However, when he caught sight of a familiar mop of hair, he relaxed and continued to sip on his drink. He eyed the rest of those in the bar, and minutely shook his head, indicating that the new kid wasn’t going to be a problem. The rest, taking heed from Len, returned to their games and drinks. Satisfied that there won’t be trouble, Len turned his attention towards the lone figure of one Barry Allen, sitting at the bar counter. He motioned for the bartender for a drink and hadn’t turned to look at anyone else yet.

Len figured that the kid was here for him again and waited for him to come find him. It wasn’t like Len was hiding anyway. He was just sitting in the booth at the very corner, in plain sight. But minutes ticked by, and the kid didn’t seem to be doing anything other than drinking drink after drink. Len frowned. It seemed like Barry didn’t even know that Len was there. Len wanted to go up to the speedster and find out why he was there, but he didn’t want to reveal himself right away.

Still, just to be on the safer side Len shot a text to Lisa. He told her to change the location of the meeting from the bar to the safehouse two streets down. Lisa, knowing her brother’s paranoid tendencies, didn’t question him and did as he said. Soon, Len had to leave for the rogues meeting so he slipped away through the back door, thinking that Barry would be gone by the time he came back.

 

~~~~~

 

Leonard Snart was rarely caught by surprise, yet he seemed to be always surprised by the Scarlet Speedster. (Not that he’d let anyone know that). It had been one hour, forty-six minutes and twenty seconds since he’d left Saints and Barry Allen was still there when he returned. Interestingly, he still looked to be deep in thought and ignoring everyone else around.

Now, Len was really intrigued. The only time he’d seen Barry this down was when he iced him at the warehouse during that meta situation. Taking note that there were only a handful of people around and none that would bother him, he made his way over to the countertop. Sliding into the seat next to Barry, he nonchalantly started a conversation, while nodding to the bartender for a drink.

“My my my, look what the cold dragged in.” He drawled. Eyes looking all over the slumped form of the young man.

“What do you want Snart?” Barry asked back, curt and obviously annoyed.

“What do I want? Question is, what do you want Barry Allen?”

Barry downed the last of his drink, before ordering another. “I’m not really in the mood for your games right now and I don’t have the patience either. So if you have something to say, say it and leave.”

Len was now pissed. No one gets to come into his bar and ask him to leave. Even if they had no idea that he owned the bar in the first place. Scowling, Len leaned closer to Barry before answering. “Me? You’re the one that keeps coming here to find me for some reason or other. So you tell me why you’re here and what you need from me this time so that I can decline and then we’ll both be on our merry ways.”

Barry finally turned and looked at Snart. As always, the older man was wearing his leather jacket and Barry could see the cold gun holstered on his leg. Snart was looking at him intently and Barry could tell that he was very annoyed. Sighing, Barry replied, “Believe it or not, but I’m not here for you tonight.”

Snart tilted his head in curiosity. “Don’t tell me that ‘The Barry Allen’ is here in a place like Sinners just for fun? This isn’t your usual scene Barry.”

Now it was Barry’s turn to scowl and get pissed. He was just sick and tired of people shoving their opinions of him in front of his face. “Look here Snart, I just came to relax and get a few drinks. If you’re here looking for trouble, I’m sorry but I’m not playing. If you don’t want to leave then fine. I’ll leave.”  He got up from his stool but before he could stand up and leave the counter a cold, and calloused hand grabbed his wrist. Surprised, he turned around.

“Now now Scarlet… You wouldn’t want to cause a scene here now would you? Besides, you still have one more drink to finish. So drop the cold attitude and sit down. we can … talk about this.

Barry snorted disbelievingly but sat down anyway. He waited for the other to speak first.

“Look kid, you’re not here to talk business? Fine. But you look like you’d run through a metahuman meat grindr. So..”

“So?”

“Fine. I’ll bite. If you want to talk about whatever it is” Len gestured to Barry’s forlorn form, “ that has you being this mopey, well, I have been told that I’m good at keeping secrets. Besides, I’ve got nothing to do right now.”

“Yea, great plan. Get me to tell you everything that’s bothering me, so you can use it against me?”

“I won’t.”

“How can I trust you?”

“Because I owe you one. From last time.”

“I helped save your sister because I wanted to and cause it’s my job. You don’t owe me anything for that Snart.”

“Alright. But in any case, I owe you one for not getting me booted to prison. I broke a rule and killed someone. You should have left me to face the cops but you helped me out with that whole sob story of a witness report.”

“Let’s be honest, you would have broken out within a week. It wasn’t a big deal.”

“It was kid. So I owe you and I hate owing people. Which is why I’m here offering you a…”

“Listening ear?”

“Something like that. I promise I won’t use whatever you say tonight against you, if that helps.”

Barry looked away and contemplated the offer. While a part of him was telling him not to trust the rogue – especially after everything that had happened with Thawne – a larger part of him, somehow felt safe and comforted by the older man’s words. Going against the voice in his head that sounded too much like Joe, Barry replied, “It does.”

His admission briefly took Len by surprise. He recovered quickly and motioned to the table at the far corner. “Well then, maybe we can shift this conversation to a table. Gives us more privacy.”

“Whatever Snart. But this time, you’re buying dinner for us both.”

“That’s fair.” Len said with a tilt of his head as he and Barry moved over. “And Barry,” Leonard called out, making Barry look up from the menu. “Call me Leonard.”

A small smile took over Barry’s face at that, and he nodded before ordering a large amount of food. Something told him that he was going to be here for quite a while.

 

~~~~~

 

The next day Barry woke up late and feeling better than he had in a long time. It felt good to finally get things off his chest to someone who understands, which was quite surprising. A memory of his and Leonard’s conversation floated into Barry’s mind. 

 

_“I don’t know what to do. I’m angry and crushed that Thawne’s gone because now my dad’s stuck in prison forever and yet I feel glad that he’s not here anymore. And I don’t know why he left everything to me, I really don’t want anything to do with him anymore, but I can’t help but be glad he did because now we can keep Star Labs and no one has to leave to find other jobs.”_

_“I get it kid. You thought of him as a father figure, but he was a bastard who manipulated you like a doll. You hate him for what he did to you, but he played a part into making you who you are and you can’t resent him for that even if you want to run away from everything related to him.”_

_“Sounds like you can relate.”_

_“Well, you know my history with my own dad. But unlike you, I’m more than happy that my bastard’s dead.”_

 

It was refreshing, Barry had to admit, to be able to see this side of the usually Cold man. Barry was surprised that he was open with him, but he wasn’t as shocked as someone else would be. He always knew that there was good in Leonard Snart. Under all that parka and cold puns was a brother who loved his sister to death and Barry could respect and relate to it. 

Looking at the time, it was almost eight in the morning. It was a Saturday so Barry was not worried about getting to work on time. He was planning on going back to sleep, when his phone chimed, indicating a text message. He turned to the nightstand to take his phone and he had a couple of messages from various numbers. Noticing that the most recent one was from Patty, Barry sat up straight. Usually Patty would send him weird CSI memes or funny posts she found online to cheer him up. But something in Barry told him that this message was different.

Not wanting to waste time, he opened the message to see only a few words. **'Important. Need to talk. Call me.'**

Anxiety coursed through Barry as he fumbled to put a call through. The phone rang twice before Patty picked up.

"Patty?"

"Hey Barry, sorry did I wake you?"

"No no I was up anyway. What's this about?"

"Look, I'm not gonna beat around the bush. This is about the favour you asked me. I was called in last night to a pawn shop robbery. I processed the evidence and the set of prints I found came up as yours Barry."

Both CSIs were silent over the phones. Barry didn't know what to say and Patty didn't know what to do to offer comfort.

"I'm sorry Barry, but I think it's safe to say that whoever the guy is, is your - "

"Soulmate."

"I'm sorry, but unless it was you robbing that shop, or someone else trying to frame you...."

"No I get it. And I don't think it was someone trying to frame. Even if it was, I have an alibi for last night."

"That's good. I also went back over the past two crime scenes in case we missed something and I found video footage from the first one. Nothing to do with the actual crime but the footage was from after the robbery, when the cameras were working again. I saw footage of you collecting evidence and there was no way you could have left your prints anywhere from what I could see."

"Oh." Barry said monotonously. He didn't know what to do with the confirmation that his soulmate, the one he'd been looking forward to meeting, was a criminal. A small voice in his head whispered traitorously that he never had problems with befriending certain other criminals, but Barry pushed that voice back into a corner of his mind. He tuned back in to what Patty was saying over the phone that was still on.

"....so I think it's best if we met with Singh to explain in person. He's taken a day off to help his husband who's sick. We can meet at his place in two hours once my shift ends?"

"Yea, yea sure Patty. Thanks so much for doing this for me. You're a great friend."

"Don't mention it. It'll be okay Barry. I promise." With that, the call ended. Barry shot off a text to Cisco and Caitlin, updating them about the situation before lying back down on his bed. Images of the crime scene kept replaying in his mind and the vague glimpse of the suspect - of his soulmate - also tortured him. He didn't think he could fall sleep again with all these thoughts running through his brain so he resigned himself to just wallowing in worry for the next few hours.

 _'So much for a having a good day.'_ He thought as he closed his eyes. He sighed as he pondered on how he was going to break the news to Joe and Iris. _'Guess I should prepare myself for the eventual fallout'_

 

~~~~~

 

David Singh didn't usually take days off. It comes with the job of having to run a precinct in one of the most crime filled city's ever. Granted, it was not as bad as Star City, (thank god he declined the offer to transfer there years ago), but it was still hectic. Meta humans and wormholes did not help his job at all. But here he was, taking an off day for the first time in months because his husband was sick. Rob insisted that David go to work but there was no way David was going to let his husband suffer alone when he has a fever. Besides, he figured he could use a break after the hellish few months. Which is why he was surprised and very annoyed when work came knocking on his door. However, once he saw the faces of his two best CSIs, he figured it was something important and was immediately on guard.

He made them sit down and went to make them two mugs of coffee. He came back over and sat down across from them, clad in only his night pants and a t-shirt. He looked from one to the other before deciding to speak up.

"Spivot. Allen. What's going on?"

The two looked at each other and neither knew how to start the conversation. Patty looking at Barry's slumped and agitated figure, decided to help him out.

"Sir..."

"Call me David. We're at my house. This is obviously something important that is eating away at the two of you. So let's drop the formalities."

"Right, um... David, Sir... I assume you are aware of the robbery case from last night." David nodded.

"Sir, I was the one who was called in and I ran a set of prints that came up as Barry's but Barry was no where near the crime scene and he has an alibi for the time of the robbery."

"What Patty is trying to say is that we think my soulmate is the criminal and that the previous two cases with my prints are also due to my soulmate being the perpetrator."

David was still and quiet for a moment. This was not what he thought they would say, so he took a moment to collect himself.

"Allen, are you certain that it wasn't a case of you mishandling evidence?"

"Actually Sir, there is video footage of him handling the scene and there is no evidence that Barry was anything other than professional and proper when doing his job. Also, the suspects of all three crimes have roughly the same identifying features and build."

"Ok. Thank you for informing me. Does anyone else know of this?"

"My friends at Star Labs know. Cisco and Caitlin. Other than that, no one does. I asked only Patty to handle the evidence so no one else at the precinct should have any idea." Barry replied. "Plus, they all think I'm straight anyway." He muttered to himself but the other two in the room heard it all the same. David glanced at Patty and Barry before thinking of how to proceed.

"Alright, there are protocols for situations like this. However since you have yet to meet your soulmate, this is a bit more complicated. To be honest, if you'd come to me with this in the beginning I wouldn't have been convinced but this is the third robbery and there seems to be a pattern. "

Patty and Barry nodded.  

"Firstly, Allen, you are off all these cases. You are not allowed to involve yourself in this and I need your alibi for last night and the previous two times. In the case that we do find your soulmate, you are not allowed to testify on their behalf and you cannot serve as an alibi for them as is the regulation for soulmate pairs. Since your prints were the only ones that came up, it's safe to say that the other party's information is not in the system. This is a bit tricky to work with but we will get working on the cases. Now that we know the three are connected, it might be easier to spot something."

"Of course, sir. I understand. Thank you, for all your help."

"A couple more things Allen. Until this is solved, I think it would be best for you to take a few days off. We can't risk you working on cases, only to have your prints come up again. He might rob more stores and as a precaution, I want you out of the precinct."

"Captain but -"

"It's for the best Barry. Just to help clear up certain things on the admin side."

Barry sighed. He knew the Captain was right. He reluctantly agreed to take a week off.

"Good. I'll hand these cases over to Thawne if that is okay with you? Him and Patty working on this should be safer for now."

"That's good. Thank you, Captain."

"It's my job Barry. Thank you for coming to me with this immediately. I'll handle it from here."

Patty and Barry said goodbye and left their Captain's house. As they made it down to the street, Patty turned to Barry and hugged him. "It's gonna be okay Barry. Don't worry about it." She said and left to go home. Barry ran a hand through his hair in frustration. He didn't know what to do but he had to update Cisco and Caitlin, so he ran towards the direction of Star Labs.

 

~~~~~

The moment Barry breezed into the cortex, Cisco and Caitlin jumped up from their seats.

"Oh great! You're here. We have an update." Cisco said enthusiastically. When Barry looked at them and asked what it was, Cisco looked to Caitlin for reassurance but all he got was a Caitlin motioning with her eyes to tell Barry what they'd done. Barry watched the silent exchange between his two friends and his trepidation worsened. Before he could ask them about it, Cisco's voice cut across the cortex, as he rapidly mumbled something. Barry heard it clearly though.

"So....we may have hacked into the secret government registry for all citizens' fingerprints, to help you find your soulmate. I mean the robber."

Barry blanched. He had contented himself with the thought that he wouldn't have to face the reality of his soulmate's identity soon, but it looked like nothing was going right for him that day.

"When Cisco says 'we' he actually means 'Felicity' hacked into the registry." Caitlin chimed, oblivious to the doubts and hesitation that Barry was harbouring.

"Hey I helped!" Cisco squeaked with indignation. Caitlin rolled her eyes in reply. It didn't matter to her who had hacked the registry. What she was concerned about was her friend, worrying over his soulmate - who just so happens to be a criminal. Looking at Barry, she realized that he hadn't reacted at all to their revelation.

"Barry are you okay?" She asked. The worry in her tone snapped Barry out of his trance and he looked her.

"You two found out who my soulmate is?" He asked, his voice shivering a little.

"No Barry. We wouldn't do that without your permission." Caitlin replied.

"Yea man. We just hacked into the registry. Since the prints didn't turn up another match in CCPD's system, we figured we'd check the main one. Felicity helped us out with that and it took a while but we have it."

"We still haven't run your fingerprints through the database yet. We will only do it, if you want to Barry. It's your call." 

Barry took a moment to consider everything. On one hand, he'd wanted to meet his soulmate since he was a kid. He grew up listening to stories of how his parents met and fell in love, and the day they found out they were soulmates. He had wanted his own love story just like his parents. When his father was sent to prison wrongly for the murder of his mom, he lost his trust in the system, but he never let go of the want to find his true partner.

Before he learnt how to compare fingerprints, he wondered if Iris would be his soulmate. However, when he started to live with her, she became his best friend and sister and he stopped wondering about it. Instead, Iris and he would spend nights taking about their soulmates and how they'd imagine meeting them. Iris's dreams came true when she met Eddie, and Barry was happy for them. Barry's wishes, though, were on the verge of being shattered.

A million what if scenarios ran through his head and he didn't like any of them. Deciding that the only way to stop worrying was to know for sure, he turned and looked at his friends and told them, "Do it. I want to know who it is. I just, I really need to know guys."

Nodding in understanding, Cisco went over to the console to pull up the database and Barry's fingerprints. Caitlin came over to Barry's side and silently took his hand and gave it a squeeze. It was her way of showing him that no matter what happened, she'd be there.

There was silence in the cortex and for almost a minute, everyone held their breaths. When the main monitor flashed with the results, various things happened all at once.

Cisco's jaw dropped as he stared unblinkingly at the screen, Caitlin let out a small involuntary gasp and Barry, dropped down onto a chair in surprise. Because he was staring at a face that he knew all too well. It was the face of the man who betrayed him the man who tried to kill him and the man who kidnapped Caitlin and Cisco. And Barry couldn't believe it. Captain Cold was his soulmate.

He groaned in frustration, at the potential fallout of everything. He put his head in his hands as he thought about how to even go about telling Snart. Barry was certain that Snart never knew because he would have said something if he did. Hence, the responsibility of bringing it up fell onto him. He let out a frustrated huff. He needed to talk to someone.

Caitlin and Cisco were talking together, trying to give Barry some space so Barry took out his phone to text Iris when he found an unread message from last night. It was an unknown number with relatively short message.

**Good talk Scarlet. If you ever need to chill out or cool down, I wouldn't mind doing it again. But you'd owe me.**

Barry knew who it was even without the snowflake emoji attached. This was his newly revealed soulmate, who he spent an entire night talking with without even knowing -

And that's when it hit Barry.

 

  1. Leonard Snart is his soulmate.
  2. Barry's fingerprints were found in three different crime scenes done by the same person.
  3. Leonard Snart was nowhere near the third crime scene because they were together when it happened.
  4. They're each other's alibi for the robbery (even though it's not allowed due to the rules)



So therefore, Barry realized that someone else must have committed all three robberies. How they got a hold of the fingerprints and whether they're actually trying to frame Barry or Leonard, he didn't know. All Barry knew for certain was that he really needed to talk to Iris and that he and Leonard were really screwed.

_'God why can't I just catch a break?'_

**Author's Note:**

> My first time writing such a long work and it didn't really turn out the way I wanted it to. Not too happy with certain parts but I tried my best to fix it and make everything flow. I hope you guys liked it! :))
> 
> Any and all mistakes are mine and I'm sorry bout them ><


End file.
